20 FISH CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
time an advancement might be made as the supply of the re- 
quired length increased and more nearly met the demand. 
Having pointed out the necessity of such a law, and indicated 
the best mode of its application, it only remains to be shown 
how it may be made effective. | 
I think it is an established fact that protective measures can 
only be carried out in the open market, where the possession of 
unlawful fish or game is “prima facie” evidence of guilt. 
Such a law has been in full force in Massachusetts since 1874, 
but the possibility of finding a market outside the state has 
been a barrier to the best results, and just so long as there is 
any place where lobsters may be indiscriminately sold, we can- 
not justly judge of its efficiency. 
I am fully aware that in advocating a measure of this kind 
opposition will arise which must be met and answered in the 
most tolerant spirit, for fancied rights of individuals are not al- 
ways in accordance with the reasonable demands of the public 
good. 
The first opponents of the law for the protection of lobsters 
in Massachusetts were the fishermen, whose testimony at the 
same time was the best evidence given of the necessity for such 
alaw. These, however, after a trial of one year, not only be- 
came reconciled to it, but even its strongest advocates, and real- 
ized year by year more fully the wisdom of the measure they so 
bitterly opposed. 
There has been one circumstance noticed which I think quite 
significant, viz.: that the first year the law went into effect one- 
fourth of the whole number caught were obliged to be thrown 
back on account of their insufficient size, which proportion has 
gradually diminished, until at present scarcely more than one 
in ten is discarded. 
The state of Maine, which possesses the largest lobster-pro- 
ducing grounds on the coast, has, from time to time, passed laws 
for the protection of the lobster fishery, but has had a powerful 
and important interest in opposition to a limit which no other 
state has, the size being of less importance for canning pur- 
poses than for other consumption. 
This year, however, a law has been enacted by which the 
